All Forum Posts by: Kevin Lefeuvre

I would negotiate it. Your negotiation elements are 1) the fact that the notice was short and you need time to rerent, 2) they got a better rate for 6 months than 4 months 3) the fact they prepaid meant somehow that there was no possibility for early termination. That said you are ready to show some flexibility. I would think keeping one month and refunding one would be fair.

And Happy New year to all members here, my preferred forum. Wishing you all a great healthy and prosperous year.

 Unbelievable!

Thanks for sharing your story Kenny. 

My rates on airbnb are also higher to compensate all these issues. 

Question: How do you communicate with the guest prior to booking to tell them to book on VRBO/HA ? I've never tried it but thought it would be filtered out.

Unless someone distributes poisonous food in the area to all your guests at the same time, you should be good. Haha!
But I hear you: circumstances can be anything.... "act of god" ... the big one. 

Your host could not possibly "admit" he had no requests. When dates on a calendar are taken, the property does not show in any search for those dates on airbnb. So of course the host will not get new inquiries because dates show occupied. Duh!

Appreciate your "spiritual" or "religious" comment and advice, but keep that for yourself as I keep mine for myself and make my judgement. BP is a business community and my post is about business. 

BTW since you don't seem to have read all the conversation here: noone is questioning the illness, but the party who should pay for the loss, the $60B valued corporation (i.e. airbnb) who has decided this policy only with the guest, an insurance company or the hard working entrepreneur?

The comparison with Uber is exactly their strategy. The difference is that I (like many others) am mostly a "vacation rental" homeowner or more precisely a "entire unit short term rental" (since I have urban unit too) and not "a cheap room".  Airbnb is ideal for occasional hosts with a room or two inside a bigger house. The distinction needs to be made more clearly. 
I think that "entire unit short term rental" is a huge space left open in the market , with VRBO being the only player addressing it (at least for the mid-range to high-end part of it) at this point. There is room for a few more players.

The number of times this happens is very small but added to "Security deposit with airbnb is a joke" and "Airbnb only considers physical damage", and a few other things we have discussed in this forum before, the number of disputes between hosts and airbnb should be much more than that IMHO. The point being, these are on the field "bullying" practices, not documented anywhere in their terms or "contract" with the hosts.

They have not yet charged back, just shared their intention at this point. I may take the case to the court for the sake of justice. I (just like any other host) am in business relationship with airbnb with terms and conditions well written, etc. They are very possibly in breach of contract. I've asked them to show me where did I approve that the Extenuating Circumstances leads to the host refund and not just airbnb. Awiting their response. Don't feel good to just let them walk away. We'll see how they react.

And yes , by publishing, I hope other hosts fight them each time they bully.

I think on the long run they are on the wrong side. Without good houses Airbnb would not exist. They know it and they are using their momentum to build houses and even compete with us homeowners. Also it's possible this shows in their numbers with a high turn over rate and unmotivated hosts which could be the reason for them to not have gone public yet despite their huge size and impatient VCs. 

The practical rational is to follow your good advice: Let it go and one year from now you forget. But the doing-business-also-for-fun in me wants to take them to the small claims court and give them a lesson. I have escalated the issue , waiting to see how the supervisor reacts. In the past they have been able to give monetary compensation when their policy sucks. Will see. 

As for your story, sorry that the cleaning lady refused to clean. She needed to remind you who has the last word I guess.

Absolutely @Michael Greenberg . Did I tell you guys my pricing on airbnb is 10% above VRBO. That's how I moved from 40% VRBO in 2017 to 65% in 2018 with no impact on occupancy rate or revenu. Counting the days until I can cut airbnb.

 Airbnb does not support this. It means that if you refuse a guest for not having travel insurance, they will consider this as a cancellation by host leading to lower ranking and ultimately terminating your host account if twice in a year.

 John they want to charge back on me.